PA condemns attack claimed by Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 1, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority has condemned Tuesday's shooting attack that left four Israeli citizens dead near a settlement close to Hebron in the occupied West Bank. "What happened tonight in Hebron was timed to coincide with the PLO's decision to engage in negotiations to end the occupation and achieve freedom and independence for our people," Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said.

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Israel hints Jerusalem compromise in peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Joseph Nasr, Matt Spetalnick - September 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's defence minister said on Wednesday the Jewish state would be willing to hand over parts of Jerusalem in peace talks with the Palestinians to be launched by U.S. President Barack Obama. A flare-up of violence in the occupied West Bank and a deadlock over Jewish settlements there loom as potential deal-breakers for Obama, who will host Middle East leaders for dinner at the White House in Washington.

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Killing of Israeli Settlers Rattles Leaders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - August 31, 2010 - 12:00am

The killing of four Israeli settlers, including a pregnant woman, in the West Bank on Tuesday evening rattled Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the eve of peace talks in Washington and underscored the disruptive role that the issue of Jewish settlements could play in the already fragile negotiations. The military wing of Hamas, the Islamic group, claimed responsibility for the attack — in which gunmen fired on a vehicle carrying two men and two women at a junction near the city of Hebron — and described it on its Arabic Web site as a “heroic operation.”

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A Peace Plan Within Our Grasp
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Hosni Mubarak - (Opinion) August 31, 2010 - 12:00am

IT’S been 10 long years since the Palestinians and Israelis last came close to establishing a permanent peace, in January 2001 at Taba in Egypt. During my career in the Egyptian Air Force, I saw the tragic toll of war between the Arabs and Israel. As president of Egypt, I have endured many ups and downs in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Egypt’s decision to be the first Arab state to make peace with Israel claimed the life of my predecessor, Anwar el-Sadat.

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Hamas targets Israeli-Palestinian talks by killing four Israelis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - August 31, 2010 - 12:00am

As Middle Eastern leaders gathered in Washington to inaugurate a new round of Israeli-Palestinian talks, Hamas gunmen killed four Israeli settlers in their car outside the West Bank city of Hebron. The attack appeared to be an attempt to spark violence that could undermine the peace negotiations and was a stark reminder that the Islamist Hamas movement remains an important force in Palestinian politics, no matter how much either the Israelis or the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas wish they would go away.

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Hamas-Islamic Jihad Relations Deteriorating
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Kifah Zaboun - August 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Sources within the Islamic Jihad Movement have described relations with the Hamas movement as "tense" to the degree that interaction between the two movements' officials on a political level have ceased. Another high-level source told Asharq Al-Awsat, "They went beyond all limits ... They are acting like a government that owns Gaza, and now nothing is left between us except the media." The sources accused Hamas of escalation against elements of the Islamic Jihad on a daily basis through arrests, attacks, and raiding of the movement's offices.

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The Strip Under Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Abdullah Iskandar - August 29, 2010 - 12:00am

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has been escalating its political discourse against the Palestinian Authority, on the occasion of the latter answering Washington’s call for direct negotiations with Israel. The debate over taking such a step will thus prevail over other issues with the nearing of the date for starting these negotiations on the 2nd of next month.

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Israeli army cracks down on soldiers' controversial photos
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 27, 2010 - 12:00am

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military prosecution Thursday asked to extend the remand of three soldiers after their photos of posing with a handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian were found saved on their mobile phones last week. The photos, in which the soldiers are seen pointing a gun at a suspected Hamas member, were apparently taken eight months ago in the West Bank town of Jenin.

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Palestinian rights watchdog accuses Hamas of preparing to close it
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 26, 2010 - 12:00am

A Palestinian national human rights watchdog on Thursday accused Islamic Hamas movement of trying to block its activities in the Gaza Strip. The accusation came after Hamas lawmakers approved a law and said it aims at regulating the work of the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) in the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave. Officials from the ICHR said that the law targets the commission, which has been operating since the creation of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and is a prelude to restricting its work before shutting it.

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Gaza will be the ghost at Mideast talks banquet
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Douglas Hamilton - August 25, 2010 - 12:00am

It's the proverbial elephant in the room, the ghost at the banquet, the spectre no one wants to acknowledge. Even if Israel and the Palestinians can scale a mountain of scepticism and reach a peace treaty in the next 12 months, 40 percent of Palestinians would be part of it in name only, because they live in the Gaza Strip. Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers say they will never give Israel what it most wants from a Middle East deal, which is recognition of the Jewish state and a legitimate place in the Middle East.

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